Ombuds suspends Silay City exec for immoral conduct

BACOLOD CITY, Philippines — The administrator of the Silay City government in Negros Occidental has been suspended by the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas for six months without pay after he was found guilty of disgraceful and immoral conduct.

City administrator Ignacio Salmingo, who had earlier went on a leave of absence, was served with the suspension order implemented by Mayor Jose Montelibano last Wednesday.

Silay City legal officer Kara Aimee Quevenco said in a radio interview that Salmingo’s indefinite leave of absence was recalled after his suspension took effect on Nov. 15.

Montelibano, who was directed by Deputy Ombudsman for the Visayas Pelagio Apostol to enforce the suspension order, already submitted a compliance report to the Ombudsman, Quevenco added.

The complaint against Salmingo was filed by Silay City resident Jose Lindy Chan Jr., a member of the Serve the People Movement Association, after Salmingo was allegedly found inside a motel in Bacolod City with a married woman on April 15, 2011.

The Ombudsman, in its decision, stated that even if they did not commit any illicit act, the fact that Salmingo, who is married, checked into a motel room with a woman not his wife, who is also married, is in itself a transgression of the basic norms of morality, decency and decorum. (FREEMAN)